John D'Arcy

Description
John D'Arcy is Director of The Open University in Ireland with responsibility for the University in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He took up this post in October 2010 shortly after which he along with Dr Jenny Meegan became involved in discussions about proposals for a Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Centre at the site of the former prisons at Maze Long Kesh. The Open University’s input focussed on its experience of teaching in the Maze and Long Kesh Prison and also around the development of potential exhibits based on this experience. The proposals for the Centre were paused in 2013. However given the positiv...e discussions and interest in The Open University’s experience John worked with and played a key role in a small team of Open University staff which developed an Oral History Project to document the experiences of ex-prisoners who had studied with The Open University in the prisons and tutors who worked there during the period of conflict. This later became the ‘Time to think’ Project. In addition to this project John was The Open University’s academic consultant on BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘Languages of Ulster’ three part television series in 2017. Prior to joining The Open University in Ireland John was Chief Executive of Colleges Northern Ireland; a Director of BDO Management Consultancy; Principal Officer for Research and Statistics with CCEA; and a Research Fellow with Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research. John was made an Honorary Research Fellow at The School of Education at Queen’s University Belfast in 1996 and was a member of the Education Panel on the UK’s 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. He is a board member of the Open College Network in Northern Ireland and AONTAS – The Irish National Adult Learning Organisation. He is a former Chair of Enterprise Northern Ireland; Audiences Northern Ireland and the Oh Yeah Music Centre; and has been a board member of Sport Northern Ireland the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council and the Broadcasting Council for Northern Ireland.